The Labor enquirer., 1887-12-03

~ssys ~s> wig tsVsabuS suSSC AiS1l
were confined in the county jail.
treated in all respects like the
criminals BY whom they were sur
rounded. All are native born
Americans. one Of them tracing
his ancestry back to the heroes Of
the American Revolution.
To be imprisoned in filthy, YER
min-infected cells for such a
length of time was bad enough,
even as a punishment for the crime
of being Socialists, but the worst
has not yet been told. One Of
them. never very strong physic-
ally, was SO weakened by the close
confinement and abominable pris-
on fare that his health completely
broke down, and he is to-day a
permanent invalid, unable to do
active labor, poor almost to star
vation--a physical wreck.
But the great state of Illinois
was not content with merely de-
priving these devoted men of their
liberty. Its officials have proven
themselves worthy followers of
the Inquisition. Torture was ap-
piled in the case of one of the
victims, with the sesult of unseat-
ing his reason and terrifying him
nearly to death.
The victim of this cruelty is an
old man; an American of Irish ex-
traction. Simple minded as a
child, and possessing an inherited
weakness of superstition, he was
an easy victim to the devilish in
genuity of his torturers. It's true,
the rack, the thumb-screw and the
iron boot were not used; these in
struments of an ignorant age have
given place to more refined sys
TENS of torture. 1t has been re-
ported that prisoners of the pres
ent time are visited in their cells
by ruffians wearing brass knuckles
and heavy hob-nailed boots, and
that they are beaten and kicked
until through terror for their lives
they confess anything their brutal
jailors demand. IAN article in the
Kansas City MeaVs in February
last corroborates this statement. I
But this old man was not beaten
or physically ill-used. His jailors
understood how to attack and
weaken him, and they set to work
with all the cunning andc ruelty
of modern inquisitors.
Even now, though eighteen
months have passed since he un-
derwent this torture, in speaking
of it his whole appearance de-
notes the mental anguish which
the memory of it awakens.
Immediately after his arrest he
was locked up in dark cell at
the central station. Whenhe had
been left in black solitude for sew
eral hours, his tormentors, by the
aid of chemicals and a galvanic
battery. commenced operations.
He saw. coming out of the inky
darkness horrible figures advanc-
ing toward him. Grinning death
heads, skeletons and hideous
faces, all seeming to be enveloped
in sulphurious smoke. Sometimes
it would appear as if the heavy
stone wall of his cell advanced
upon him, and he believed he was
to be crushed to a jelly. Again it
seemed as if he was to be suffo
Gated; dense clowds of a heavy
vapor poured in upon him, until he
gasped for breath. Then some
flaming material ewas thrown in
and he was in imminent danger of
being burned to death. When at
last exhausted nature forced him
to lie down upon the iron cot. he
was suddenly thrown by some
mysterious and invisible power
into the middle of his dungeon.
For three days and nights this
torture was kept up. and when the
poor old man was finally removed
to the county Jail his mind was al
most a blank. Reason was totter-
ing and for months he was on the
verge of mental dissolution.
And these three bore their inn
prisonment with patience and
without complaint. Loyal to their
principles they remained, and still
are true. In the exciting events